[Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for May 2008

[A Monthly Update on the World of Science]

The UnMuseum Newsletter for May 2008
Science Over the Edge
 A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: 
 
*Jabba Frog had No Lungs - Scientists have discovered a species of frog that lives in the remote parts of Indonesia's Kalimantan province that has no lungs. According to David Bickford, an evolutionary biologist at the National University of Singapore, the frog was discovered during an expedition in August 2007, but nobody noticed the lack of lungs until several specimens were dissected back at the laboratory. According to Bickford, the aquatic frog, named Barbourula kalimantanensis, is the first frog to be discovered that gets it oxygen through its skin rather than though a set of lungs. Some salamanders and caecilians also have this ability. Bickford described the animal as looking like "a squished version of Jabba the Hutt. They are flat and have eyes that float above the water." Scientist hope that a careful study of the creatures may help them understand the environmental factors that contribute to "extreme evolutionary change." Bickford co-authored a paper on frog for peer-reviewed journal Current Biology. 
*The Sound of Neanderthals - According to Robert McCarthy of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Neanderthal man spoke a bit like a croaking frog. McCarthy, who presented his results at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, reconstructed the shape of Neanderthal vocal track based on 50,000-year-old fossils from France. Neanderthal man was thought to have gone extinct about 30,000 years ago. McCarthy, who simulated their voices with a computer synthesizer, said Neanderthals, who were thought to have gone extinct about 30,000 years ago, wouldn't have been able to produce the quantal vowels which now form the basis of our spoken language. McCarthy hopes to continue his work and produce an entire Neanderthal sentence. 
*NASA Extends Mission to Saturn - The international Cassini Mission to Saturn has been extended by 2 years at a cost of $160 million added to the original $3.3 billion price tag. The unmanned probe has sent back about 140,000 pictures of the planet's rings, atmosphere, storms and moons since the probe was launched in 2004. The extension will allow Cassini to make 60 more orbits around the planet and then pass by its largest satellite, Titan, along with four other moons. 
*Ancients Army Covered with Egg - Scientists have discovered that the famous full-sized terracotta army that guards a Chinese emperor's tomb was originally covered with egg. According to German and Italian chemists who have analyzed samples from several of the figurines the egg was a binder for colorful paints. According to Catharina Blaensdorf, a scientist at the Technical University of Munich in Germany egg paint is normally very stable, and not soluble in water which makes it less sensitive to humidity and moisture. Scientists first suspected that the binder used might be an animal product, but analysis has led them to suspect egg. The terracotta army, dated to 210B.C, is one of China's most striking archeological sites and was discovered accidently by farmers who were digging in their fields. Information about how the figures were originally painted will help scientists repair, maintain and restore the site. 
*Hydrogen Sulfide for Suspended Animation - Scientist's continue to be impressed with hydrogen sulfide as a possible way to create a state of suspended animation in animals. In last month's Anesthesiology journal Warren Zapol, the head of anesthesiology at Harvard University's Massachusetts General Hospital, reported testing the substance in mice and finding it slows mouse metabolism without cutting blood flow to the brain. This method appears to be superior to chilling a body to slow metabolism, which can cause problems with heart rhythm. If a successful way of placing human beings into suspended animation can be found it, could have several uses including putting astronauts to sleep for extended space missions or placing patients in stasis after traumatic injury. One of the attractions to this method is the easy as which subjects can be placed into the state and removed from it. They simply are given a mixture of regular and with the gas. Mice placed into this state are not truly asleep, but do react to stimulus (like getting their tail pinched). "I don't know what its like," Zapol stated, "probably some slow-motion world." 
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Science Quote of the Month - "Science is an imaginative adventure of the mind seeking truth in a world of mystery." - Sir Cyril Herman Hinshelwood (1897-1967) Nobel prize winner 1956.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: 
*Flying Saucers and the Third Reich - Hitler and the Third Reich led Europe into a decade of terror in the first half of the 20th century that culminated in World War II. Technology played a greater part in that war than in past conflicts and the Germans developed an amazing array of secret weapons in a short time. Were flying discs part of the Luftwaffe arsenal? And if so, was this secret looted and used by the Allied victors after the war? > (http://www.unmuseum.org/germufo.htm)
*The Roots of Indiana Jones - Indiana Jones was spawned in the mind of George Lucas as a way of bringing the short serial movies he'd watched as a child back to life. What were these cliffhangers and why were they so inspiring? > (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/indyroots.htm)
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator:
*Tesla's "Death Beam" - I'm wondering about Tesla's Death Ray. Did anyone ever try to build one after his death? Was it ever proven as a viable weapon? - Frank 
Nikola Tesla, the almost forgotten genius of electricity, hated war and for years searched for a way to put an end to it. In 1934, at age 78, Tesla thought he had found it. He had an idea for a death beam based on sending a concentrated stream of charged particles though the air. The beam would carry tremendous energy and would disrupt or melt whatever it hit. The weapon, he thought, could be used to down any hostile airplane approaching a country's borders. The beam could only be sent in a straight line and would not follow the curve of the earth, so it only had a range of only a couple of hundred miles. Because of this, Tesla felt that his invention could be used only as a defensive weapon to prevent aggression. 
He failed to get much interest in it until he wrote a technical paper entitled "New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media" and mailed it to a number of Allied nations including the United States, Canada, England, France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. According to him the weapon would be "capable of destroying 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles." The nation that showed the greatest interest in it was the Soviet Union, which tested one stage of the weapon in 1939 and sent Tesla a check for $25,000. 
Tesla's design was clever. One the problems with a charged particle weapon is that the particles need to be accelerated in a vacuum, but then must be able to emerge from the weapon into the atmosphere to make the beam. To keep the interior of the weapon a vacuum Tesla devised a gateway for the particles that consisted of a blast of high-speed air blowing across the weapon's barrel. The blowing air helped maintain the vacuum, but would not hinder the beam. 
Despite this, experts say his exact design appears unworkable. However, after his death some of his papers appeared to have gone missing and then, during the "cold war" both the United States and the Soviet Union tried to developed "charged particle" weapons similar in principal to Tesla's designs. Conspiracy theorists suggest this is more than a coincidence. Later a similar weapon was designed to be put aboard a rocket as part of the SDI ("Star Wars") program to down approaching missiles, but the idea was never implemented. Currently one company is experimenting with a charged particle beam weapon code named MEDUSA which they hope can be used to defend against planes and light tanks. So far, however, no charged particle weapon seems to have made it into the standard defense inventory of any nation. 
Have a question? Click here to send it to the curator.(http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm)
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History:
 *Airship Flap - May of 1897 marks the end of the great airship flap that started the previous November of 1896. For those few months people all over the United States reported seeing a strange airship in the sky apparently piloted by a reclusive inventor. Then, as suddenly as the reports had started, they stopped leaving a mystery that continues even today. For more information on this anomaly in history check out The Mysterious Airship of 1896. (http://www.unmuseum.org/airship.htm)
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: 
*Check out Mercury - If you ever wanted to spot the innermost planet, Mercury, in the sky this could be the month to do it. Starting around May 13 look for the tiny planet in the west-northwestern sky in the early evening. It should be very close to the horizon. Wait about 30-45 minutes after the sun had set and make sure you have an unobstructed view of the western horizon. Mercury is very difficult to see because it orbits so close to the sun and is lost in the sun's glare. The trick is to look not too early or too late and watch for a bright star-like object. 
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: 
*Chances are Against Intelligent Aliens - According to a paper in Astrobiology magazine it seems likely that human beings are alone in the universe. Andrew Watson, with the United Kingdom's University of East Anglia in Norwich, looked at the length of time it took human beings to evolve and compared it to the length of time Earth will be habitable for life. "If we had evolved early … then even with a sample of one, we'd suspect that evolution from simple to complex and intelligent life was quite likely to occur. By contrast, we now believe that we evolved late in the habitable period," Watson says. With only about a billion years before the sun will grow hotter and incinerate our planet, the Earth's biosphere, at least four billion years old, is in its old age. Humans have overcome horrendous odds -- less than 0.01 percent over 4 billion years according to Watson's calculations -- to achieve intelligence very late in the game. If his calculations hold true for other earth-like planets it seems that intelligent life is very rare indeed. 
  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: 
Please check local listing for area outside of North America. 
*Nova:  First Flower - In remote mountains of China, experts find clues to the origins of Earth's most stunning plants. May 6 at 8 pm.
*Most Of Our Universe Is Missing - A team of astronomers and scientists try to pinUnfolding Universepoint the location of a strange presence hidden deep in the core of the galaxy. What they find in this mysterious realm harbors clues to the origin of the world and a future course to the galaxy and universe. On Science Channel. May 06, 8:00 pm; May 06, 11:00 pm; May 07, 3:00 am; May 07, 9:00 am; May 11, 4:00 pm; ET/PT
*Riddle of the Polar Sky - Join a quest to unravel the mystery of the Aurora Borealis. Scientists and citizens working on the most current scientific theories live in six months of extended darkness. On Science Channel. Apr 15, 8:00 pm; Apr 15, 11:00 pm; Apr 16, 3:00 am; Apr 16, 9:00 am; Apr 18, 4:00 pm; Apr 20, 4:00 pm; May 07, 4:00 pm; ET/PT
*Cities Of The Underworld : Stalin's Secret Lair - Deep within the former Soviet Union lays a classified, subterranean world of Cold War secrets. Join host Don Wildman as he ventures behind the Iron Curtain to reveal how the Soviets were really preparing for a nuclear war. From nuclear submarine bases to underground apartment blocks, these sites are so top-secret; they've never before been seen on American television. On The History Channel. Airs on Thursday May 01 10:00 PM; Friday May 02 02:00 AM; Monday May 05 09:00 PM; Monday May 05 11:00 PM; Tuesday May 06 01:00 AM, ET/PT.
*MonsterQuest: Giganto - The Real King Kong - An exploration of the Giganto (King Kong) legend using modern science, technology, and historic eyewitness accounts. Gigantopithecus (the Latin term for "Giant Ape") is believed to have existed 9 to 5-million years ago and supposedly was around 10-feet tall. Some fossil evidence shows that it may have lived in China or India. Scientists of varying fields will attempt to genetically connect Giganto to modern-day creatures from around the world. Could Bigfoot be a relative? Forensic testing, extensive scientific research, 3-D animation, and body reconstruction will help determine the true mystery behind this prehistoric ape. On The History Channel. Wednesday, May 07 09:00 PM; Thursday, May 08 01:00 AM; ET/PT.  
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------*LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm)
Copyright Lee Krystek, 2008.
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